The Snap
by The knight in dark flames
Summary: "Well I'm starting my semester with a Yang! Eh? Guys? Am I rig-uh what the-?" Yang stopped. A scream was heard. Dust was all around them.
1. Prologue: Ruby

I don't own RWBY.

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Ruby Rose was a normal girl. No matter what her sister said. No matter what her teammates said. No matter what anyone else said.

Ruby knew se was perfectly normal. Yes, she got into Beacon two years earlier, but that was because she impressed the Headmaster. A normal reaction, she would've done the same, maybe… probably.

Still she was just your average 15-year-old, sneaking her hand out of her partner's stuff with her with said partner's binder in hand. Nothing out of the normal, and she could explain her actions.

She had just survived her first semester in Beacon, without getting in (too much) trouble and today was going to start the second one! So, she wanted to plan out the whole day with her team. Her team! How awesome did that sound?! She was made leader!

She wondered what they could do today, since all classes were going to be about what they would see and look at the rules again, they basically had a free day! Maybe they could go downtown to the arcade, or to a restaurant (if Weiss is feeling generous), or the movies, or the weapons shop, or stay in Beacon and practice, maybe go to the Emerald Forest or- or- or so many options!

She heard a yawn behind her and quickly hid the binder under her skirt.

"Ruby?" Blake was awake, she always tended to be the one to wake first, she was second, Yang third and Weiss was always last, maybe it had something to do with the White Fang "What are you doing up so early?"

"Oh, you know, new semester, new classes, closer to being a full fledged huntress, I just couldn't contain my excitement!" Half-truths were the best; she was lying but at the same time not.

Blake chuckled lightly "Yeah I guess it's pretty exciting" she said "I'll go take a shower" she was taking a shower now? At 4 am? She usually took them at 6- Ruby looked at her scroll '6:04 am' "wow time sure flies" she mumbled as she jumped into her hanging bed to get some sleep.

She was certain she didn't know how time worked sometimes, but all she knew was that today was going to be AWESOME!

* * *

Few hours later

Ruby P.O.V

This was perfect!

All the classes they had, including Goodwitch's, had only lasted 15-20 minutes, which gave them even more free time.

I had excused herself from her team saying she was going to leave her scroll charging at her dorms, which was true, but also the perfect opportunity to go grab the binder.

I saw them all sitting across from Team JNPR, Weiss and Blake seemed to be eating normally while Yang was eating food thrown at her by Nora.

It was time to make her entrance. I put the Binder now dubbed 'Best Day Ever' in front of them

"Sister, Friends, Weiss" I heard Weiss yell 'hey!' but I continued "Four score and seven minutes ago I had a dream" they didn't need to know it was actually four hours ago "a dream that one day the four of us would come together as a team, and have the most fun anyone has ever had, EVER!"

"Did you steal my binder?"

"I am not a crook" I quickly replied.

"What are you talking about?" Blake asked intrigued.

"I am talking about starting the semester with a Bang!"

"Well I'm starting my semester with a Yang! Eh? Guys? Am I rig-uh what the-?" Yang looked over Blake for some reason before getting hit by an apple from Nora.

"Look it's been two good" "Ruby quiet" I stopped abruptly. 'Yang had never shut me up before' I got worried "Yang what's wrong?"

Blake and Weiss also seemed confused. Yang looked too serious.

"Look" she said pointing her finger at across the room.

We all looked over to where she was pointing and we saw a team of three, they seemed to be missing a member, although for some reason they were looking at the same spot wide eyes.

"Yang what are we supposed to be looking at?" Weiss asked worried by the change of tone in the mood.

"Their fourth member was with them" she responded.

"Sis? I don't get it maybe he or she went to the restroom or-" "The guy turned into dust" Yang once again interrupted me, but we were also shocked. What did she mean?

"Yang what do yo-"

"Aaaaaaahhhhhh!" a scream was heard, and we all turned to see a random student turn into dust in front of our eyes.

My eyes went wide and I think so were my team's, I looked over at Jaune and his team, and they seemed like they had also seen that.

Another scream was heard, we turned again, and another student disappeared.

Suddenly the cafeteria was filled with screams and people suddenly turning into dust.

It was pandemonium all of the sudden.

My team and team JNPR all quickly stood up and rushed at each other.

"Ruby, what's going on?!" Jaune asked looking at me with wide and very frightened eyes.

"I don't know, but we have to get out of here, maybe is something in the cafeteria" all of us nodded and quickly rushed at the nearest window, since the door was being cramped by all the students trying to get out.

"Get back everyone!" Yang yelled as she punched the window three times before breaking it. We quickly jumped out the window and breathed a sigh of relief.

Our relief disappeared when we heard people still screaming. We saw all around us. People were still turning into dust. People were still dying.

"B-Blake?" I heard Yang quietly call over, we all looked towards Blake and saw her look back at us wide eyed, I could see her skin starting to crack.

"Blake don't move" I ordered but it was all for naught, as we felt the wind pick up, and with it Blake.

"BLAKE!" Yang cried out, with tears starting to stream down her face, I could feel some forming in my eyes too trying to come to terms with what I just saw.

Blake was gone. Dead.

So fast and so sudden we didn't know what to do.

"J-Jaune?" we all heard Pyrrha and we all felt our hearts jump to our throats, she was extending her hands out to Jaune as if trying to reach him.

"Pyrrha?" Jaune said weakly, as he attempted to grab Pyrrha's hand, but as soon as he touched it it turned into dust, quickly consuming her.

"Jaune I lo-" she was gone before she could even finish her sentence.

"I'M GOING TO FIND WHOEVER IS BEHIND THIS AND I'LL –" Yang's rant was stopped. Dust was falling from where she used to be.

My head hurt, I didn't know what was happening. This had to be a nightmare.

It was a nightmare. Just a nightmare. Just a nightmare. Just a .Justanightmarejustanightmare.

It wasn't a nightmare.

* * *

"_This is a devastating day for Remnant, millions of people suddenly turned into du-"_

"_General Ironwood has issued a State of Emergency, Atlas has greatly suff-"_

"_We have confirmed that Weiss Schnee and Willow Schnee are the last Schnee with the death of former CEO Jacques, Weiss Schnee is the new CE-"_

"_Beacon's and Haven's headmaster appear to have been the only ones who disappeared, this was confirmed by the deputies of both acade-"_

"_Headcounts have finished in Atlas-"_

"_-have finished in Menagerie-"_

"_-shed in Vacuo-"_

"_-in Mistral-"_

"_-Vale-"_

"_**Half of the population has ceased to exist"**_

* * *

**When I finished watching the snap but it affects various heroes I decided to write this hope you enjoy it. Also I don't own Marvel.**

**-The knight in Dark Flames**


	2. Year I: Qrow

**I don't own RWBY nor Marvel.**

* * *

The Aftermath: Qrow

_"It has been 2 weeks since half the population in Remnant turned into nothing more than dust, co-workers, friends, families, have been mourning since the events. Miraculously Grimm have been reported to be fighting among each other, Grimm experts have no idea why they are acting this way, but can only compare it to Grimm stablishing dominance over others, only some are attacking the outer settlements, this turn of events gave the Huntsmen Academies time to redeploy their Hunters. In other news the White Fa-"_ the Tv was turned off. Qrow couldn't support to listen to any more of the same news.

Plus, he had a killer headache with how much he had drank last night. He could remember when he first started drinking, it was his way of coping with Summer's loss. He drank enough to get drunk but not enough (most of the times) so that he would think irrationally.

But now it was worse, much worse.

Taiyang and Raven were gone.

Gone the same way half of Remnant went.

With just a pile of dust left where they were once standing.

Curse his fucking Semblance.

He couldn't think of any worst luck than being the last one of his team alive.

He thought he could've done something. Anything. But he knew nothing could've been done.

He had been in a village when it happened.

He had just woken up, and went to the Minibar/restaurant right outside the inn he stayed in. He was about to pay for his meal when the waiter suddenly turned to dust. He was up on his feet and outside the restaurant before a second passed.

Everywhere he turned he saw villagers turn into dust.

Men, women, elderly. Even some children. As if it was picking at random.

He had quickly turned into a bird and flew to where he remembered was the last place the Branwen Tribe had been located not far from the village. Because for all her faults, of which being a stuck-up bitch was the most common, Raven was still his sister. He flew at fast as he could. He arrived forty minutes later.

Forty minutes too late.

The place had been ransacked, and that was all he needed to know to realize that his sister was dead. If Raven had been alive, she would've stablished order among her tribe as soon as the first one turned to dust. If any besides Raven turned to dust.

He was devastated and thought that the least could do was to tell Tai since they were once married. And that was when he remembered that it happened at random.

So once again he flew as fast as he could, with little rest, and arrived at patch four hours later. He rushed at the cabins in the woods.

He kicked the door open screaming for Tai, but he didn't answer. He thought he might've flied to Vale to make sure, Yang and Ruby were okay, and he was about to rush out when he heard a whimper.

He turned and saw Zwei in the kitchen, sniffing at the floor while whimpering. Qrow slowly approached the corgi and fell to his knees when he saw the small amount of dust there.

He couldn't remember when he started crying, but all he knew is that he stopped when Glynda called him.

Only to inform him that Yang was dead.

So was Ozpin, but he couldn't give a crap about him. His team was dead. His blood family was dead. The only news that made him sigh in relief was to hear that Ruby had survived. He almost cried all over again but stopped when Glynda informed him that Ruby was in a catatonic state.

He arrived at beacon not five minutes later and went over to the Headmast-Headmistress office. He arrived and could see that the sudden death of maybe half her students had taken a toll in Glynda. Her eyes were red, and puffy, her hair a mess and he could see the dried tear stains in her ace. For all her cold exterior she was still human.

She saw him and he was about to ask how she felt, when she just told her Ruby's dorm number. It appeared she liked to mourn alone.

So, walking towards the dorm, he arrived, and was about to knock when he decided to just open the door slowly.

The dorm was tidy, he saw very unstable but yet stable bunk beds. It looked nice.

But it felt empty. He would know, they were made to hold four students for four years.

But he could only see one figure sitting in the bed in the tall-left corner.

Glynda was right. Ruby just sat there, not moving, unresponsive at his entrance. She was just breathing and blinking.

He got closer and "Ruby?" he whispered, calling out to her, he thought he said it too low, but he saw her blink few times, recognizing his voice.

She slowly turned to him "U-uncle Qrow?" she too whispered, but her voice was hoarse, not from crying but from not using it "W-w-where is dad?" he flinched slightly but she saw it.

Her eyes filled with tears and she jumped at him, tackling him in a hug and crying her eyes out.

He hugged her back and shed his own tears, they were like that for what felt like eternity, and none dare let go of the other. They sat there. Hugging. And crying for those they lost.

After that everything happened too fast. They slowly let go of each other, Ruby filled a suitcase with all her stuff. She went to the dorm in front of hers and knocked, three kids came out, they talked and finally they gave each other a giant hug. She turned to him and they left Beacon that same night.

Fourteen days passed and just yesterday was the first day Ruby went to sleep to her room. Which is why he took the chance to get wasted just for that night.

He got up from the couch and saw Ruby cooking breakfast, she learned last week when she saw that if he had been a cook he would've starved to death.

He saw her humming lightly to a tune in her Scroll, and he cleared his throat. She turned and saw him. And smiled. It was the last light in his life. His last shinning beacon.

He would protect that smile. He would help that smile grow. And he would train the girl to whom that smile belonged to. She had told him that she still wanted to be a Huntress, to help rebuild and protect the mourning world.

And he would be damned if he didn't train his last family to be the Best Goddamn Huntress to ever live.

* * *

**Yep, not going to be a One-shot. I think I'll do some few more of these aftermaths on other characters, just got to think, with which ones. Anyway, hoped you enjoyed it**

**-The knight in dark flames**


	3. Year I: Weiss

**Don't own RWBY nor Marvel.**

* * *

Aftermath: Weiss

For one Weiss Schnee it all had happened in an instance.

One moment she had been accusing Ruby of stealing her binder, the next she was jumping out of the window when she saw students start to turn into dust.

Just when they were catching their breath three people in their group turned into dust right in front of them. And just like that Yang, Blake and Pyrrha were gone.

Ruby entered into shock after witnessing her sister die in front of her and when she tried to call out to her, she didn't seem to acknowledge her.

Meanwhile team JNR were more vocals. Just as Pyrrha finished disappearing it took only one second for Jaune and Nora to start crying and screaming, Ren the always quiet stood there standing, but she could remember seeing tears running down his face.

Once it was confirmed stud-people stopped dying, Weiss thought she could finally let it all out, but she should've known the bad news wouldn't end there.

Once she got to her dorm with Ruby in tow, still unresponsive, she got a call.

And learned her siblings and father were dead.

And now it was her turn to enter in shock. She didn't remember when, she didn't remember how, but she does know that just as soon as she had entered her room, she was boarding a Schnee Private Bullhead that would take her to Atlas.

She also knows that she cried the whole ride to Atlas.

But that was 7 weeks ago.

Now she stood in the office that once belonged to her father and her grandfather before him.

The first week as CEO of the SDC was confusing and hard. Every stock associate tried to gain more control out of her, simply to gain more power and money in the company.

That must have been the longest time she had been in her "Ice Queen" mood as Ruby used to put it. And maybe the only time she got a genuine smile of relief was when General Ironwood offered his services to use the army to control any extreme associate that wanted to exploit the weak state of the SDC.

Her sister trusted General Ironwood, so she would trust in her sister's trust. Afterall, all Ironwood had asked in return was cheaper dust for the army for the next six months once the extraction and production of Dust continued.

During the second week, she started to implement the changes she had once promised Blake. She had asked General Ironwood to make an investigation in all former and active, associates and authorities in the SDC for corruption and mistreatment of Faunus.

He had looked at her wide eyed when she asked him that, but soon smiled "You have no idea how long I've waited to get the authorization to do such."

Also, during the same week a huge mourning civilian march started to roam across the streets of Atlas. Everyone had a candle inside a glass so that the cold winds of Atlas wouldn't blow them out. Weiss participated and noted how just some looked in her direction and seemed surprise to see her there before turning back to where they were looking.

The third week is when she started to remodel the mansion. Everything was white. And while she didn't have anything against the color, she believed it could use some more to make it stand out. Plus, the lack of any color besides white reminded her of her father and how obsessed he was with the Schnee name.

She hired humans and Faunus alike to do the job. And she once again saw the evidence that her father's management had a bad reputation, when the faunus that arrived looked terrified. As if they were stepping into the lion's den. But she was glad when the humans didn't bat an eye at the faunus.

Except for one.

"Ms. Schnee, if I'm not out of line, why are these animals in here?" one of the designers asked with barely hidden disgust. The 'animals' in question, some looked angry, others tried to not show reaction but se could see some nervousness in their eyes, but most looked at the ground in shame, in shame for having been born different.

But all she could see was her teammate Blake. Her dead teammate Blake, hanging her head in shame, and her hidden cat ears. Ears she hid because she was afraid of people like her. Of her. A Schnee.

"Get out" her voice startled everyone, and all faunus looked at her wide eyed "I brought all of you here, because I was looking for the best of the best that remained after that day, confident that all of you would be professional and as such would make an excellent job" he was now seeing her with wide scared eyes, everyone seemed to be doing so, but she wasn't done "but here you are, being unprofessional and trying to make less of others that I hired, thinking that I would allow it."

She stepped closer to him and he backed away, she stepped again, and he backed again, once again she stepped closer and this time he fell flat on his ass.

"So, if you would please. **GET OUT."** She tried so hard not to scream at him, that those last two words came out through gritted teeth.

He stood still in the floor and looked like he was about to piss himself if he hadn't already, with sweat running down his head.

"**NOW"** he didn't need to be told twice, he got up as fast as he could and ran out of her sight and out of the mansion. Hopefully forever.

She turned back to the remaining group and saw them also looking fearfully at her. She was confused but soon found they weren't looking at her, they were looking _behind_ her.

She turned her head to see what it was and saw a giant white knight wielding a giant sword. It was standing menacingly behind her and could see why they were scared.

She thought on how to make it disappear, but as soon as she had that thought it dissipated into white particles.

She looked again at the group and this time they were standing rigid with their backs up, almost as if they were military.

She chuckled lightly hoping to lighten the mood "Sorry for that shameful display, I just can't and won't stand for that kind of behavior I hope you weren't scared"

"Not at all" "Nah" "Of course not Ms. Schnee" "…" she sighed sadly, she could hear their fear, but noted how the faunus didn't say anything, instead all of them came forward and bowed their heads to her.

"Thank you"

It was a simple whisper, but she heard it, and it meant a lot to her.

"Don't worry about it" she answered with a light smile "now then shall we talk about the new look I want for the mansion? Or how does this work, interior design is not my thing" she got a light chuckle out the group easing the mood and finally getting to business.

After that plans and designs were laid out for her to see of the new color scheme for the mansion both outside and inside. In the end she ended up picking one proposed by a faunus, because it complimented good to the colors she liked. Blue, navy blue, sky blue, and just a little grey.

And so during the fourth week they started to work, all the while she relocated to her room to manage the SDC since they would also be remodeling completely her office.

Also beginning the fourth week the SDC started once again to export Dust to the other Kingdoms, obviously beginning with Atlas, while selling it a little cheaper to the Military as promised.

Not much happened during the fourth week, that garnered her attention, the preparations for the remodeling were slow, but once everything was set, they breezed through the process.

During the fifth week, the mine's management section of the Company, revolted by not doing their jobs. She knew it would eventually happen. It was the mines that were the most oppressive to faunus, but that was only because the managers of said mines allowed it to be as such.

And when they eventually found out that investigations would be done in all of them, of course they would try to revolt inside the company.

And that's why they were all fired in that moment. Many would call her stupid for firing them. Since even though they allowed the conditions in the mines to continue, they at least had experience in managing a mine.

And they would've been right. If General Ironwood hadn't given her information on the mines and workers who were suitable for the job and had been working in there for years. Strangely but also not so strangely many of the profiles the General gave her, were of faunus who led other faunus to work effectively while also trying to minimize the damage that they could get.

And so, the sixth week was a busy one. She visited every mine personally to inform all of its workers of the change in management. And while she got it done it wasn't without any surprises. Unpleasant surprises.

When she arrived at the first mines, they didn't seem so bad. They were located near villages, were the workers lived, and as such were protected by the SDC security. But she still noted a few faunus thinner than they should be but hoped that all vines only had a few mistreated faunus.

She started to lose hope the further she got from Atlas.

Each time, she saw more than the last time. Malnourished faunus, old, young, some were so weak they shouldn't have been able to pick up their tools, but they still did. She thought she had reached the worst of the SDC. But she was wrong.

How wrong she was.

A camp. A fucking camp.

She couldn't help but curse as she saw the houses that were built underground, so that workers would sleep in the mines and wake in the mines. She even saw children carrying small bags of dust. Fucking children. Children that had possibly never seen the sun and only know this underground for their whole lives.

She almost cried as if 'That day' had happened all over again.

And every time when she told them the change in management the name which was listed in the profiles. They cried. They cheered. Many celebrated as if she had told them they were the new CEO of the SDC.

But there were some that cried in agony. For when she named the person the General had told her was good. They cried, since that person had been dusted, so she did the second best thing. She gave them the option to choose someone themselves. This seemed to calmed them somewhat and thanked her with as much positive emotion they could muster.

It seemed that for them things wouldn't get worse, and in fact would get better.

But for Weiss, it just kept getting worse.

From camps, to small villages, from small villages to villages, from villages to small towns. And they all reacted the same. It broke Weiss' heart. She couldn't help but think if she was even worthy of being where she was, seeing as all of it was build upon the blood of innocent.

She was quick to dismiss these thoughts thinking that if she didn't have this position the people she was trying to help quite possibly would never be helped.

But the doubt was still there.

She finished going to each mine halfway the seventh week. And once she was in the confines of her new office, she allowed herself to cry silently.

And so now she was here standing quite possibly at the top of the world. The second most powerful person in Atlas. Weiss promised to herself that if there was an afterlife, she was going to beg Blake to forgive her for being so ignorant.

She turned to look at her scroll. Her huntress Scroll.

She had been scared of contacting any of her former classmates. She thought they might've thought of her a coward, for going away the day they it happened. And at first she thought so too.

But now, with everything she had happened and done. She knew she had no say in it, and while it saddened her, she no longer regretted it. She knew she was doing as much good as she could, and she hoped her friends would forgive her for leaving them.

She mustered all the courage she could and took her scroll.

Searched for a specific number.

And called

She heard a tone.

Another one.

Anoth-

She answered and looked at her with wide happy eyes.

She couldn't help herself and also smiled. The widest smile she has given in weeks.

"Hello Ruby"

* * *

**It will end in there. I know I said Willow had also survived, but she was never seen when Weiss was taken back to Atlas, and I actually didn't know how to include her in this chapter. But don't worry Weiss will have her reunion with her mother.**

**Hope you enjoyed it.**

**-The Knight in dark flames.**


	4. Year I: Jaune

**I don't own RWBY nor Marvel.**

* * *

Aftermath: Jaune

Jaune "applied" to Beacon because he wanted to be a hero.

He wanted to carry the legacy of the Arcs and become a great huntsman.

He didn't care if he didn't have the training…or the courage…or a powerful mechashift weapon.

When he finally entered Beacon, he realized how underprepared he was, how naïve he had been to assume it would be easy.

He started to lose hope, and almost gave up when Cardin revealed he knew about his fake transcripts.

But then everything started to look up to him. He confronted Cardin, his partner, Pyrrha Nikos, helped him improve by training him and he thought Weiss might've been opening herself more to him (since now she denied his every attempt to ask her out instead of just outright ignoring him).

But most importantly, his dream of becoming a Hero who would save villages and protect the innocent didn't seem so farfetched anymore.

But that day, he wasn't a hero, he wasn't a huntsman, he was just another student watching his partner turn into dust right in front of his eyes.

In that moment he didn't feel like a hero.

And so he did the best thing someone does when someone close to them dies. He cried. He didn't know for how long he cried all he knows is that Ren and Nora were there for him, crying by his side. When the following day came, he was sure he couldn't shed another tear.

Until his Scroll rang.

He and his (remaining) teammates were just sitting in their beds when his scroll started to going off.

It startled all of them, but he quickly grabbed it and looked at the ID caller. He felt his throat tighten when he saw who it was.

It was his father. Nicholas Arc.

With trembling hands he answered and saw an older looking version of himself although with a beard and short hair "Father?" he stuttered a little.

"JAUNE OH! Thank the gods, you're alive!" he sounded relieved, but he could tell it would be short-lived "Are you ok? Where are you? Who are you with?"

"Dad, DAD!" he raised his voice a little to make him stop "I'm ok, I'm in my dorm at Beacon with my tea…" he chocked on his words, he saw Nora clench her fists and Ren look at her with worry "…with my remaining teammates"

His father paused and I could see when the words "remaining" dawned on him "Oh, son, I'm so sorry".

He tried to say not o worry about, but he would also be lying, because he too still cared so he tried to change the subject "ow are the girls?" and he instantly knew that was the wrong thing to say.

He saw his father look down. "Father?" he saw his mouth move but couldn't make anything out of it "Father?"

"They're gone Jaune"

He almost dropped the scroll when he heard that. His body was numb. His thoughts in disarray. He could already feel the tears forming in his eyes.

"W-Who?" was the only word he choked out.

His father didn't say anything, he stayed quiet.

"WHO?" he cried, but could be considered a shout, Ren and Nora were looking at him with worry, but a that moment he didn't care.

"Jade" Jaune shut his eyes tightly "Coral" a sob escapes him "Saphron" he hears his father sob "Lavender" 'please don't say another name "and your m-m-mother" his father holds it together.

He doesn't, "AAAAHHHHH" he drops to the floor, and screams, while tears run down his face.

He feels Nora and Ren at his sides each trying to console him, it kind of works and he is only reduced to a sobbing mess.

Minutes pass and soon he is feeling better, but tired. Too tired. He looks at his scroll and can see that his father is still in the call, he grabs it back.

"Jaune" his father starts slowly "please come home" he sounds so desperate, Jaune understands, his dad just wants to hold his only son and make sure he is there. But he can also feel his teammates tense.

They don't want him to go. They just lost Pyrrha, they couldn't afford to lose another friend. To lose another family.

"Ok" Jaune responded, and it hurt to see the betrayed look in their faces "but I'm bringing my teammates with me"

His dad looked at him wide eyed before giving him a knowing look "They can come" he wasn't fast enough to stop the ball of joy that was Nora from tackling him to the ground while shedding tears of joy.

"I knew you wouldn't abandon us fearless leader! You're the best leader we could ask for!" she continued to crush his bones while swinging him around, before dropping him and picking up his scroll "And fearless leader dad we promise to be the best guests we can possibly be, we can help with anything you ask!"

Nicholas Arc couldn't help himself but laugh at the antics his son's team was displaying, it almost reminded him of his own team "I'll look forward to meeting you, and I look forward to see you again Jaune"

Jaune managed a small smile "And I look forward to see you again, dad" and with that Nicholas hung up.

Nora was giving him the biggest smile she had ever given; and Ren too was smiling, more than…'he ever does actually'. It was a good sign of positivity taking in consideration what happened the day before.

Remembering that brought down his mood, but he couldn't appear sad in front of his now happy team "Alright guys let's get packing"

* * *

A month later

It had been rough for his team to adapt living in the big house they had in Ansel. When they first arrived, his three remaining sisters tackled him to the ground and hugged him without letting go, as if he would disappear if they did.

He thought it must've been traumatizing for them, possibly seeing their mother and other three siblings suddenly disappear. 'And now I'm the oldest sibling' with Saphron, Coral and Jade gone, he was now indeed the oldest sibling. Julie and Cerene were just 2 years younger than him.

It was a relief when he saw that accompanying his father was Saphron's wife Terra and their three-year-old son Adrian, they were family and he was glad they had come with them to pass those hard times.

His remaining sisters, Sapphire, Julie and Cerene, were skeptical of Ren and Nora the first days, until Nora revealed her prankster and joyous attitude which instantly won over the girls, and he was dragged most of the time to any of their antics, the majority he gladly would since he wanted to spend time with them, although there were some times he was the target for some pranks.

Ren would often be talking with Terra and his dad, asking if there was anything he could help around in the house, which they would gladly accept the help.

All in all, they were healing, everyone in their own way.

Everyone except him. And they shouldn't et him wrong, he to was feeling a lo better now that he was home.

He was with his family, his friends, and his father had agreed to help continue training Ren, Nora and him. But there was one thing he couldn't get out of his head.

Pyrrha's last words. He didn't want to think about them, but he did anyway. Because he knew what she was trying to say, it was clear as day.

Anyone who had seen any action movies, or any movie at all, knew that when someone was in their last moment, they would use it to reveal something important.

And Pyrrha had revealed enough with just saying "I lo-"

She had loved him. And he had been dense or to interested in Weiss to notice. He tried to blame himself but knew it wasn't his fault, for all his faults he knew that if he had known, he wouldn't have left her alone.

He was thinking about that while looking at the sundown in the perch "Fearless leader!" he smiled a little hearing Nora quickly approach, he turned around slowly, to say hi, but was quickly hit with a mudball to the face.

"Mud War!" she shouted, while grabbing him, lifting him up above her head and… "wait Nora, DON'T!"… throwing him to the front yard, where he could see his sisters preparing to launch an attack "ATTACK!" Sapphire shouted.

His mind going into override he quickly landed with a roll, quickly evaded as much mud as possible, with a few hits in his armor and sweater, before grabbing a chunk himself, and hurling it at Nora.

She appeared to haven't expect the quick recovery for she just saw the mudball, get closer to her real fast, before it collided with her face.

She stood there standing still, for a second before she wiped her face and gave a huge grin "OHHH fearless leader you just declared war on the Mighty Queen of the Castle! My loyal followers" Sapphire, Cerene and Julie appeared by her sides "ATTACK!"

Jaune couldn't help but smile as he ran, 'A month ago, we lost s much, more than anyone before had ever, but I can see that maybe, just maybe, we can overcome this'.

He knew that his family would never get over it completely, but that shouldn't stop them from building another family.

Because he knew, his father knew, his sisters knew, that that is what his mother, Saphron, Coral, Jade and Lavender would've wanted.

'What Pyrrha would've wanted'.

* * *

**You are not required to read this. I wrote this little part because it helps me to have somewhere to express myself.**

**These past few days have been hard, not just for me, for everyone. While I haven't been affected as much by the quarantine as others (I'm used to not going outside or hanging out a lot) it doesn't change the fact that I have less time for writing as you can see by this short chapter, and the date I did it. I don't have any video classes like others do, but my teachers just send me homework in the middle of the night and expect me to do it for the next day by 23:59. My parents are working tooth and nail so that the quarantine doesn't hit us as hard and as such I have to help in around the house whenever is required. But I try to stay positive, hoping that this will end, hopefully by the end of July.**

**And remember STAY HOME. But if you NEED to go outside because it is essential for yourself or your family, BE CAREFUL, COVER YOURSELF, and KEEP A HEALTHY DISTANCE.**

**\- The knight in Dark Flames**


	5. Year I: Adam Taurus

**I don't own RWBY nor Marvel**

* * *

Aftermath: Adam Taurus

Years.

That's the time he had been fighting against the humans.

Ever since he was rescued from that accursed placed called mines, he has been training, preparing and fighting for himself and all Faunuskind for when the time came, when humans 'inevitably' attacked them.

He knew it would happen. Humans may seem to not care, some may fake caring, but he knew the truth, he had seen into the abyss that was human's cruelty, and that same abyss had stared back.

His left eye was proof of that.

When he joined the White Fang, it had been an honor, he felt pride, he thought he was doing the right thing for the betterment of Faunus lives.

He should've known better.

Ghira's peaceful methods weren't yielding the results he envisioned for the White Fang. The White Fang wasn't being taken seriously, humans like Jacques Schnee would look at them and scoff.

"_A protest would not change the minds of those that whipped Faunus in the mines!"_ he remembered having told Ghira, but he ignored him.

"_We need to show them we are different from them, that we want change without resorting to another Faunus War"_ it was he had answered him that day.

"_Yet nothing has changed, I joined four years ago, and the White Fang has existed long before, nothing has changed since then!"_ he liked to think as himself stubborn as a bull, and not because of his Faunus heritage.

"_Change is never fast, it takes time, we just need to be persistent"_ yes, he remembers Ghira also being a stubborn pain in the ass, maybe one of the few qualities he admired of the former High Leader.

"_Every second, we waste in these peaceful protests, it's another second of thousands of our kind dying of hunger, abuse, and quite possibly experiments, we can't afford to pull any punches!"_ the argument had lasted for another half hour, and when it ended he had left quite angry thinking he would never be heard.

But he was heard. Sienna approached him the day after and told him she agreed with what he had said to Ghira last night, he had been surprised, he had been so invested in the argument he forgot, other cell leaders had been around.

She told him that she and the other cell leaders too agreed with his views, obviously the only one who didn't was Kali. She told him her and the other White Fang high commands had a plan to remove Ghira from power _"We just need an opportunity"._

And she got it.

And so he was there, in the last protest to ever be carried with Ghira as High Leader took place in Atlas, and it didn't end well, for both sides. Once again, he saw the cruelty that humankind was capable of, when a Huntsman shot a live round at a protester who pushed him. That single shot brought chaos.

But it was the opportunity Sienna and her followers needed, after arguments with Ghira, she convinced him to give his position as High Leader, as his methods were paid with the lives of 20 Faunus.

Change was immediate, 'guards' started to go in every protest that took place.

Anti-faunus establishments would be trashed and ransacked.

And his personal favorite, Schnee dust mines would be attacked to liberate the enslaved faunus. But his only regret would be that they could never stop the creation or 'resupply' of said mines.

For he knew from experience that no matter how many Faunus died, or escaped, they would be replaced in a three days tops.

Still, he saw the changes and he felt proud of his work, soon he started to be seen as a hero, with how many of his kind he liberated per month. He could say with certainty that he was happy to have sided with Sienna.

Until he wasn't.

She started to negotiate with the councils of each kingdom, they started to talk about more equality to Faunus, about how they would be given a fair trial, and judgement. Of how Faunus would be given an equal opportunity to be citizens, but he knew better, it was just a front.

Nothing would change.

Establishments would still refuse to attend them; people would still assault them and kill them. And most importantly they would still be slaves in mines they had no choice but to be born to.

And yet, Sienna accepted some of these changes, but still the attacks persisted if they ever saw an establishment mistreat faunus, so that was a plus.

But still he was very dissatisfied, and so he started to look for people that agreed with him. He couldn't be the only one.

And he wasn't. Unsurprisingly most of his followers had once been in a mine, and his most devout had been in mines the furthest from Atlas.

And so slowly he started to gather support, and with his newly appointed position as head of the Vale Cell it became easier.

Everything was going in schedule, until two things happened.

One: a weird, quite possibly, crazy and megalomaniac human, approached him offering to help him with his revolution if he worked for her, he was about to behead the foolish human for even suggesting working for her. Until she showed him Dust to feed their SMGs for weeks. So, he accepted, some sacrifices needed to be done for the greater good.

Two: …. Blake betrayed him. The mission was going well. Everything was fine. And then she left. He had thought that she had gone back to Menagerie with her parents, and didn't think much about it, until Roman (one of the disadvantages of accepting to work for the crazy bitch) told him of a Female Cat Faunus with amber eyes.

He tried to deny it, she couldn't have betrayed him for humans. To go and join Academies where racists were accepted with open arms, as long as they could kill some Grimm.

But worst of all, when he was given a newspaper as proof. He saw in the background of the image, the unmistakable hair of the Schnee.

As such since then he had been angry, and he used that anger to push his agenda. His plan had been to take control of the White Fang and then start a revolution, but plans change, and his aligned a little too well with the crazy human's.

And that had been every major event in his life up to this moment…is what he would've said if _that_ day had never happened.

All his hard work, all does nights training, all the recruiting, all his preparations, were turned to dust almost as if with snap of the fingers.

A third of his forces suddenly turned to dust in the middle day, at first he thought they had been found by a huntsman with an overpowered semblance.

But then he heard the screams. Outside the warehouse they ha been and down the streets, people were running, as vehicles lost control and crashed, bullheads dropped from the sky, and most importantly, man, women, old and young turned to dust right in front of his eyes.

He would've believed it to be divine justice finally being given to the humans, if he had not seen a faunus child hold the hand of her disappearing mother.

He had smiled that day, when seeing it now he shouldn't have. His remaining followers saw his smile and left him. They had called him a "monster" for smiling at a time like that.

And they had been right.

When the following day came, he was all alone. With particles of what once had been half the population of Vale around him.

The previous feeling of glee, he had had seeing humans cry and scream had died, and once he was calmer, he was hit with the sudden loneliness of all his follower leaving him. He had gotten to know them, and he would've trusted them with his life, and he should've been angry at them for leaving him (the that didn't die), but he couldn't because he knew it had been inconsiderate of him to smile. They all had families and said families could've been victims of this catastrophe.

He grabbed his weapon and scabbard and started to look around the city, he saw some broken glasses in stores, vehicles crashed, some even with one or two bodies either under them or inside them. Everything looked worse than ever before, even he could feel the negative feeling in the city.

And then he heard crying, he walked to where he heard it and saw two children no older than 3, one was a dog faunus and the other was human, both had dark hair, they were crying nonstop and he wondered where were their parents when he saw the remaining dust around them.

He looked around looking for any adult, so he could leave them with, but there was no one around. He cursed a little before he picked the faunus girl carefully and patted her a little to calm her down, it seem to work, he then turned to the human baby, and hesitated, but soon got down and picked him up too.

He didn't know why he did it, he tried not to think much about it, but he had taken both kids 'I could never leave a Faunus in need, unless I was doing something for the White Fang, but the Fang is probably in disarray too' no matter what excuse he gave himself it didn't change the fact he let carrying both children in his arms.

"Mommy! Daddy!" they both cried while hitting him in the face, but he didn't waver "Mommy! Daddy! Please come back! Help us! Help us!"

"They can't hear you, they're gone" his answer just brought more tears.

He had gone back at the warehouse and dropped the kids in one of the couches, he could've left them in an orphanage, but the circumstances weren't probably the best ones. So, he left them there, while he went out to scavenge for supplies 'the grocery stores must be deserted' and they were he took what he thought was necessary and left.

And so the days passed. The children would still cry out for their dead parents, but now they would never cry when he entered the warehouse. And he would've stayed at the warehouse, had the kids not cried about wanting to go home.

He couldn't take them home, but he could take them to where most faunus considered home.

Menagerie.

It took a full month before some jobs returned to normal, flights and cruises to other continents were one of such.

He grabbed all of the savings they had in that warehouse, and took all of the other safehouses as well, if other members hadn't thought of doing that.

Told the kids to pack their stuff (which he stole from stores) and get ready they were leaving. They no longer cried, having been fed and taking care by him taught them that they weren't in danger, and they relaxed a little when they saw his horns. They still looked sad when he told them, but did it nonetheless.

And so the next day they were on a ship to Menagerie. He smiled a little when both kept holding his hand the whole trip.

After some days they finally arrived, and the he could see there was not much difference between Vale and Menagerie. Not many shops were opened, and any passerby he saw just had a defeated look on his face. He saw the Belladonna's state and wondered if Blake was there, but quickly he erased those thoughts. He had the worst relationship with the Belladonnas.

And so he led the children inside the jungle. To where his old home was.

His home was as he remember, small shack inside the jungle. He smiled a little remembering how he built it, and how over time he kept upgrading it. He opened the door, and everything was as he remembered, in the far left corner were futons to sleep in, just a little to the right was the bathroom, in the middle of the room was a small table, and all of the right side was the kitchen.

His home was the very first time he accomplished something all by himself. "Wow" He smiled even more, when they started to admire his little house.

He was staring to grow fond of them, although he still believed they resented him a little from taking them away. His constant anger was nowhere to be found. And then he realized something important.

"Hey" he called out to the kids, and they both turned to him "I know this might be a little too late, but what are your names?" they seemed surprised at the question, they probably thought I would never ask them, or that I didn't care enough to know their names.

They gave me broad smiles and both announced heir names "I'm Crystal" the girl responded "And I'm Cloud" the boy responded.

He too smiled "I'm Adam Taurus" and let them inside.

Now four months later he still didn't know why he did it, maybe it was the sense of empathy he felt for them, because he knew what it was lo grow without someone, maybe it was a rare sense of solidarity, he didn't know, it didn't matter. He didn't regret it. He quite possibly saved them from a horrible experience had they stayed in the streets.

He was rummaging through the market by the beach, looking for new food. When he heard a ping from his scroll. A disadvantage of living in Menagerie was that the news took from 2 to 4 weeks to arrive to the coastal town.

He took out his scroll and his eyes widened when he read the title of the news. Quite possibly the most shocking ones since _that_ day.

In that very moment Adam, returned to being his old self for a little bit as he laughed hysterically while other passerby watched him as if he was crazy.

He didn't mind, he stopped laughing after a while, but he still wore a sinister grin on his face "Maybe the future won't be so bad afterall" he murmured to himself.

And he couldn't help himself but look again to relish in the happiness he felt from the news.

"**Leadership purges in Atlas, from the Army to the SDC"**

* * *

**Done.**

**Found a little free time to write this. **

**Now before some start speculating if at some point there would be like a type of crossover with Marvel's Avengers or something like that, and the answer is : no. **

**Let me explain, as you all know RWBY has a lot of 'Reaction' fanfics, and I like some of them (mainly those about them reacting to our Wars), but there is something similar in all of them and that is that it's just a reaction, and as such the cast doesn't really experiences what they are being shown.**

**I could've made a RWBY React to Infinity War or something like that, but I thought it would be a little repetitive. So, this is what my fanfic is about, "What if the Thanos Snap affected the world of Remnant?" how would the characters react, how would they feel, what would they do. It's not just them looking at something but actually experiencing it.**

**One of my favorite RWBY fanfics is 'Archangel by Konstantinsen' who does something like I just described, letting the characters experience it for themselves firsthand instead of just through a tv or screen.**

**So I just wanted to clear that out.**

**P.S.: that's why I write I don't own RWBY nor Marvel, because at the end of the day The Snap it's the climax of MCU Infinity War.**

**-The Knight in Dark Flames**


	6. Year I: Ironwood

I don't own RWBY nor Marvel.

* * *

Aftermath: Ironwood

Everything had gone to shit.

And he wasn't referring to the day half the population suddenly turned into dust.

No. He was talking about the present. About the actions that the council, or at least the remaining council, thought were correct while clearly violating the peace terms stablished at the end of the Great War.

Those bloody, stupid, arrogant, bullheaded, sons of bit "…ir! Sir! SIR" he was brought out of his rant by Clover, one of the two surviving members Ace Operatives.

"What is Specialist?" he tried not to show his earlier distaste for the vile men that sit in the Council.

"We've found another lead, sir" Ironwood needn't have to be told to what he was referring to.

Traitors.

Hardcore fanatics who believed in Atlesian superiority and believed the lies of the old fools.

"Take me to them" the Ace operative saluted and left the room with the General in tow.

"Here are the files of the soldiers…" he paused briefly thinking carefully his next words "…this time they were being led by Captain Lupus."

Lupus? Yes, he remembers the middle-aged captain, a dog-faunus, he had never openly defied him, neither verbally for that matter, but Ironwood firmly remembers said Captain sometimes growling at the end of some meetings.

What reasons would Lupus have to support the Council in their ideas of expansion. He opened the folder in his hand, and started to skim through the file…normal education…family lived in the outskirts of Vacuo…Age 11 parents died attached to that is a report of the event 'Vacuan Huntsman _tried_ his best to save as many civilians from the burning building'

Piecing the information together Ironwood had a clear view of why the Captain accepted the Council's deal. Atlas had never gotten along with the arid Kingdom, if another war broke out, it was possible the same sides would be chosen.

They finally reached their destination at the holding cells. He nodded for the soldier in charge of the magnetic doors to open it.

He stepped inside and found the faunus sitting on the bed.

The door closed behind him as he approached the Captain.

"You worked hard for your position Captain, anyone who holds your rank has seen or participated in operations against bandits, and yet you would want this same fate on the other Kingdoms? Why?"

The captain just scoffed at him "You've probably read my file; you should know why _General_"

Ironwood scowled at the blatant disrespect, but decided to ignore it for now "Yes I did, and yet that doesn't explain why you would agree for the invasion and occupation of Vale"

"Vale's law allows too much independence to its huntsmen, too much _freedom_" the captain growled at the word "just as Vacuo, only Atlas and Mistral demand that their Huntsmen answer directly to their Academies and Council"

"And you believe it was that Huntsman freedom that killed your parents?" it sounded too stupid of a reason.

"No, it was that _Huntsman _freedom to choose to ignore my family for their heritage that killed them" Ironwood could hear the small snarl the Captain made "If Vacuo had had a law such as Atlas regarding their huntsmen, perhaps that huntsman wouldn't have let my parents die, fearing the repercussions of the council, instead of the slap of the wrist he received."

"That still doesn't excuse that if we did what the Council demanded of us, we would be invading and killing innocents, for what, to stablish our belief of order?!" the general couldn't believe this type of people had been enlisting in his army.

"A small price to pay for salvation" Ironwood didn't have time to react in time when he felt dust infused dagger cut through his Aura and stab his shoulder.

He bit back a scream of pain and instead reacted quickly by kicking the now full-fledged traitor, off him, said traitor quickly tried to get above him again, but this time he was faster, with his robotic arm, he grabbed his custom pistol and shot his assailants knees twice each.

The doors quickly opened and Clover rushed inside, he kneed Lupus on his temple knocking him unconscious, however he turned back and saw the doors quickly start to close, but _luckily_ the doors jammed and Ironwood rapidly got out of the holding cell and aimed his pistol at the attendant in charge of the doors.

Said attendant tried to raise his firearm but was shot off by Ironwood. The general approached slowly and warily of any sudden move the soldier did, once he was close enough, he smacked the soldier in the temple with the butt of his weapon, sending him to the ground unconscious.

Clover stepped out of the cell and as soon as he did the door unjammed and closed.

Ironwood picked the unconscious soldier at his feet and threw it at the Operative "Throw him inside one of the holding cells where the followers of Lupus are, and have Specialist Ederne start interrogating them"

The leader of the Ace-Ops saluted Ironwood and made his way to the door before stopping and turning "Sir, if I may ask?"

"You may"

"What's going to happen?"

Ironwood paused at the question 'Indeed, what will happen now' traitors had started to appear left and right, claiming that the time was right to establish Atlas dominance across Remnant, but that would only bring chaos to Remnant and when chaos reigned so did negative emotions.

And it would be the perfect time for her to attack, although many clues pointed that she too had died in that fateful day, the General wouldn't take it for granted until proved otherwise. Afterall Ozpin did say she was immortal.

"I'm going to bring order Clover" he finally responded "I'll bring order back to Atlas, even if I have to cross some lines to achieve it" and he exited the room, leaving the Ace Operative analyzing his words.

He walked back to his office, he needed to make plans, the Council were starting to get hold of more of his troops by the day. If they didn't cause another Great War, they would surely cause a Civil War.

The next few days were slow and torturous, and with each day he started to slowly recognize those who agreed with the council and those who wanted to conserve the peace. It was small things that gave it away.

The occasional glare, the slow saluting as if doing it slowly on purpose, but the most significant which was also the most obvious was the armband each troop that did some of the platoons and a few divisions started to wear.

He was no stranger to this kind of military insubordination to get something, afterall he had been part of one when he was younger when he tried to help his faunus brothers in arms get a better treatment inside the army, but the time and the purposes had been different.

No matter, he was already planning in how to stop this, he was not going to let the old councilmen get ahead of him.

They would never try to get ahead of him anymore if everything went right.

"General, you called for me?" he heard Colonel Shine ask behind him.

Long ago he and Shine had belonged to the same platoon, they had been to several missions together and was one of the last alive from said platoon that survived the event from weeks ago. He was the person he trusted the most besides Ozpin.

"Morgan, please where in private, there's no need for pleasantries" a small promise they had made to each other when they were both privates, they would never call each other by the rank they held "Good to see you're still kicking"

"It's been long hasn't it, once you got the rank of General you had less time than ever to come say hi to the guys and I" he jabbed with a small smile and stretching his hand for a handshake.

"You'll have to forgive me in that regard, I was a naïve soldier who had just gotten the highest rank in the military I wasn't aware of the amount of reports I would have to read in a daily basis" he replied with his own smirk shaking his old friends hand.

Now that he had the time, he could see the changes Shine had gotten with time. The once cleaned shaved man, now had a reddish beard with some white streaks running along it. His hair was cut short like a new private instead of the old semi-long wild hair he used to have. And most noticeable was the mechanical hand he too sported.

"So what is it? The private you sent only said that and I quote "The General has called for your immediate presence", so I'm here"

Ironwood kept quiet for a while "You've been up to date, with recent events inside of our military?"

Morgan looked confused by the question but answered nonetheless "The sudden spike in traitors crying out war, yeah I've heard, I can't say I agree, not with the events that happened just weeks before…do you think is their way of coping? Or that they blame the other kingdoms for the event?"

"Whatever their reason, it is still unacceptable, and they aren't the only ones,, you know I'm one of the few high ranking officers involved I politics" he received a nod "The council has been the ones spreading ideas and hypothetical plans for the invasion of the other kingdoms" the colonel's eyes widened at the new information.

"B-But don't they know that they would only be destroying Remnant if they did so?!" He asked exasperatedly "We are lucky the Grimm have been infighting, because if not we would've already been dead."

"Believe me I know, which is why I called you" his friend stood firm hearing his voice get serious "I have need for the 101st legion I hear they are the ones who have actively tried to stop their other brethren in arms from following these ideas" Shine nodded slowly afterall they were some of the few front liners that seek to exterminate Grimm in order to expand and establish new settlements. They knew the destruction Grimm were capable of.

"What do you need?"

Three days later, Council chambers.

"Beacon has granted Third and Four year students Huntsman licenses, the longer we wait the stronger they become and not only them, with Lionheart's death and his replacement taking his place, suddenly Veteran and Graduated Hunters from Haven Academy and Mistral overall, have become more effective and active, and while it might sound good seeing as Mistral and Atlas were once allies, the Headmaster expresses great distaste towards us." One of the councilmen explained to the others why they had to find a way to get rid of Ironwood and start the invasion of the other Kingdoms.

Seeing as Ironwood hadn't yet arrived it was the perfect time, for the councilmen and women to discuss this.

"Ironwood the fool can't see past his friendship with the other Headmasters and headmistress to see that they are preparing for something big, we cannot allow it, the best course of action is obviously a preemptive strike" a fifty year old looking councilwoman agreed with her fellow member.

"But what can we do, he holds two seats in the Council, and with only some of us remaining we can't oppose him right now, it will take at least another four months until the next members are elected" the youngest of the council with forty years said "And until then we can't expel Ironwood from the Council, until all seats are filled."

A wave of mutters erupted between the last remaining members "Silence" a gruff voice said and all the members turned to the owner of said voice.

"My father participated in the Great War, he talked proudly of Mantle's might and how it had been the cursed sword the King of Vale had the only reason why we lost that war, it's been decades almost a century since the war, and the King of Vale has been dead for many years, and his sword never seen again, now every kingdom is weaker than ever and Atlas is stronger than Mantle ever was, it's our time to take the reigns into our own hands. Atlas' hands" a chorus of approval reverberated across the chamber at the words of the eldest Council member.

Before anyone else could comment doors of the room were busted open and in walked Ironwood accompanied by a dozen of soldiers who quickly scattered through the room and aimed their weapons to the Council Members.

"Ironwood! What is the meaning of this?!" the Councilwoman stood in outrage, completely ignoring the guns pointed at her and her fellow members.

"You are all under arrest for the violation of the Treaty of Vytal and are also accused for the conspiracy to ignite a Second Great War and treason against Atlas and its citizens for the endangerment such actions would bring should they ever occur" Ironwood calmly stated as he made his way to his seat in the Council.

"Y-you have no proof of this, you can't just barge in and arrest us based on false claims" the youngest member exclaimed although he was nervous by the weapons pointed at him.

"Oh, but I have, the last few minutes in these chambers are very interesting and have the proof necessarily that you deny" he took some pleasure in seeing their faces pale.

"I-It's illegal to spy and record any and all meetings that happen inside the council" one of the members that had stayed quite until now tried to turn it on Ironwood.

"One has to make small evils for the better good, in this case we're talking about the Peace between the kingdoms" Ironwood retorted without missing a beat, he turned to the soldiers he brought with him "Take them away"

He stayed seated as each of the Council Members was taken with their hands behind their back. He closed his eyes and let out a breath he had been holding.

"That went better than expected" he opened his eyes to see Shine enter the room.

"This is only the beginning, the soldiers that were either convinced or bribed by the council will have to be detained, and if any escalate things or resort to violence, we'll have no choice but to arrest them."

"…"

"…"

"What if they commit treason like Lupus?" the general was hoping this question never came up "He might not be the only one that might do something that would be considered treason, in fact the files that have appeared from SDC workers you had the Intelligence Division investigate shows that some had deals with the council, but was unsure of what…until now." Silence settled between them "James, we both know what the punishment is."

"Execution" he responded grimly.

Patch

Sound of clashing could be heard in the forests of Patch as two high speed humans clashed their Scythes against each other.

The youngest tried to shoot her High caliber sniper to add more punch to her Scythe, but the eldest moved first and quickly, let go of his making his opponent lose balance, he grabbed his opponent's weapon and twirled the owner forcing her to let go.

"And I win again" Qrow said with a cocky smirk.

"Not fair Uncle Qrow! You let go of your weapon, you said we should never let go of our weapon" Ruby Rose called out from her spot on the ground.

Qrow offered her the handle of Crescent Rose and lifted her up.

"Nooo, I said you shouldn't let go of your weapon since you've yet to start your CQC classes with me, remember first we need you to…"

"…be able to beat anyone before they have any chance of disarming me" she completed playfully having heard it many times the last few weeks.

"Let's go back to the house, I've found a new recipe that I'd like to try" hearing that Ruby cringed.

"Can't we order some pizza? Or cookies? Or anything but your food?" Ruby tried to convince her uncle but failed miserably.

"What? I'm not that bad of a cook" he only received a flat stare.

"Uncle Qrow, no offense but I always thought books exaggerated when someone was so bad at cooking that they set fire to a cereal…until I saw you do just that"

"Hey it wasn't my fault Red dust came out of the box! It was my semblance!" he tried to defend himself.

"If you hadn't told me what your semblance did, I would've never believed you" Ruby conceded and Qrow was satisfied.

They soon arrived at the house in the woods, it hurts them both whenever they see it and there's no Taiyang or Yang to welcome them back, but it is also the place where they have good memories of them.

"Go watch your cartoons or the news or whatever has your interest at this age"

"I don't watch cartoons anymore!" she was met with a stare, which made her blush "N-Not that many anyway"

Qrow had taken out the ingredients the web page told him would be needed and was about to put them in the counter when he heard Ruby scream.

"UNCLE QROW COME! NOW!"

He arrived at the living room in record time.

"-tors and threaten to disturb and break the peace between the kingdoms, as of right now many of those that were under their pocket or agreed to help the former council will be prosecuted and such the need arise, and we hope not, executed. A former captain has already attempted to end my life, but his actions only fed my resolve to bring back order to the Kingdom I've grown to love, and I would give my life for. That's why in order to ensure the order and continuing stability the government will be reorganized into a Military Junta, until these traitors have been found, and it is assured that Atlas is ready for another council." And with that Ironwood stepped of his platform and left, ignoring the questions the reporters were throwing at him.

Both Ruby and Qrow could only look at the news in shock.

And it was Qrow who reacted first.

"Jimmy what the fuck?!"

* * *

**I had planned for this to come out the 25****th**** of may, but a professor (who had been quiet for a month) suddenly decided that was the perfect day for a final exam, and so we did. A "Surprise motherfucker" moment… at least to me.**

**Anyway during the last scene I was watching something that gave me an Idea for an Omake…btw my first omake ever.**

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[Omake]

He was used to giving press conferences, to giving speeches in front of his troops so this shouldn't be any different. But it was different, he was stressed, he was still angry at the council, and sure as hell he was still angry at what his military had become.

Alas he shouldn't allow such thoughts to get in his way. He took a flask out and took a sip.

"In and out, easy, just don't get too political James" Morgan said at his right.

"Right" he was ready.

He stepped into the platform. He scanned the crowd of reporters and citizens

"Ladies, Gentlemen and all Atlas citizens, today a plot was uncovered, by Colonel Shine and I, that reveal that the Council, the ones we trusted to guide us to a bright future…betrayed us" he heard many gasps erupt from the crowd.

"They believed in war and would not be satisfied until all of Remnant was once again under the effects of another Great War… a Second Great War." He let his words sink into the crowd.

"We hoped that their ideas would not be reciprocated by others…but we hoped for much. A few days ago, one of my captains tried to incite a revolt inside the military and tried to assassinate me" again another wave of gasps, some were genuine, others could probably be to keep appearances "That's why the traitors will be hunted down and executed" he thought he had overstepped, but actually heard… applause? He felt more confident.

"The attempt of my life, will leave me scarred and luckily not deformed, but I assure you my resolve has never been stronger. In order to ensure the security and continuing stability, the Kingdom of Atlas will be reorganized into the FIRST ATLESIAN EMPIRE" more applause this time from many more.

"For a safer and secure society" all of the attendants stood and gave another wave applause and noting he had finished talking stronger than the ones before. Ironwood couldn't help but be proud of himself.

'This is how order begins, with thunderous applause'

* * *

**The idea of Emperor Ironwood doesn't bother me too much, in fact I find it kind of funny.**

**-The knight in dark flames**


	7. Year I: Neo

Disclaimer I don't own RWBY nor Marvel.

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Chapter 7: Neo

Criminals. People who've disobeyed the law or broken it in some way.

There are many types of "Criminals", there are those that are guilty of what they're accused of, yet it's never that simple. It's not white and black as some movies may portray it.

Some may steal because they had no other choice, some may kill in self-defense, some may even have been wrongly accused.

Yet there are still those that may kill because they wanted to, may steal because they can, and will probably put the blame on someone else if given the chance.

Neo believes she and Roman belong on option B.

Roman steals because he can, and it brings some thrill to his life. She has been sent to kill any upcoming hotshot who thinks it can mess with their criminal empire. And they have put the blame on the White Fang and other gangs several times.

Yet this doesn't mean they lack humanity, after all, that's just business.

So, when half the population suddenly decides to give up on living, they too were shocked. They had looked at each other with fear in their eyes, just waiting for the moment one of them would suddenly disappear.

And when they didn't, they fucked like crazy that night. If one could die just like that then they had to make the most of it.

Once the shock was over, it was hard trying to go back to robberies and heists…not for the lack of trying mind you, but they lost at least a third of their manpower and the White Fang cell suddenly went silent (most likely that they too suffered the same fate as many others).

Some would say that Criminal Empires, Families and Gangs would thrive in the chaos, and whoever said that would be right, except for the fact that they too need people to run their illegitimate business.

But even as the dust settles and the missing are numbered, some things may stay the same.

After 1 week the fiery bitch decided to call them.

_Btzzz Btzzz Btzzz_

"Ugh! who call at this hour in the morning?!" Vale's most notorious criminal grumbled while getting up from the bed he was sharing with his trusted partner.

Said partner just sat there while putting on her clothes, ignoring what her partner was saying.

"C-Cinder, how good to hear from you again" she heard Roman stutter, 'So the bitch survived, fuck' Neo thought finally putting her boots.

"Are you kidding me woman?! Isn't this enough chaos?!" she wondered what nonsense Cinder was spouting, whatever it was Roman was totally against it "If you have more power now then why do you still want to destroy the city?! Don't you see it's already destroyed?!"

Roman was shaking, quite possibly in anger, some seconds passed before he suddenly stopped.

"S-Sorry, I was out of place" another second passed "you hold the power, but look even the underworld was hit hard by this, I can't steal without the manpower to do so"

Neo was sure if she got close enough, she would be able to hear Cinder.

"Look, how about we hold a meeting, with this going around all has stopped. The economy, crimes, even law enforcement has stopped, the only ones that haven't stopped are huntsmen an even they are trying their hardest to kill any Grimm that wanders too close"

What followed was simply Roman saying "Aja", "Yes", and "Of course".

Finally he let the scroll drop.

"You know Neo" she perked up when she heard her name "I really hoped that bitch had died"

She nodded eagerly expressing she agreed totally with him.

"She said to meet this afternoon" she frowned showing her displeasure "I hate this the same as you do, but I have a plan"

She raised an eyebrow "This is our only chance, she didn't sound as composed as always, she lost her composure twice in that call, while both were in anger that had never happened before, you know what that means?"

She shook hear head.

"She's vulnerable, something has her agitated" he was sporting a grin, and I could see a plan formulate on his eyes "Come Neo I have a plan"

It was a very simple plan, and now that she heard it, why had they thought about it? It didn't matter, now they had a chance.

And now all they had to do was wait until it was noon.

Said wait felt way too long, were the nerves of what they were about to do getting to her? No, she shook her head, it was who they were going to do it to, that had her nervous. If they missed, they were as good as toast, quite literally.

Soon enough they she heard heels approaching and she quickly activated her semblance.

Cinder strode into the room with only her green haired sidekick, it would seem that robot leg wasn't so fortunate.

"Roman" she greeted with her usual sultry tone "so good we could arrange this meeting for us"

Neo could read under the line 'Good thing you answered, or it wouldn't have ended good for you'.

"Where is your little sidekick?" Cinder frowned as she looked around the room, searching for her. Roman clenched his fist hard, trying to sell the act "Oh! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean that" and she bought it if her smug voice was anything to go by.

"I could say the same about your teen assassin" Roman said through clenched teeth.

Cinder lost her smile, but didn't look that much bothered "An unexpected turn of events to be sure, but not a critical one" her smile was back "what is good is that the city is on chaos and if we act fast, they should be overrun by Grimm in minutes, how much dust do you still have?"

"I have at least 3 containers worth of Dust, I would have less but the White Fang never appeared to collect it" Roman's answer pleased her, if her smile getting a little wider was anything to go by.

"That's good! Then we won't need those animals for this" she said while pacing around the vividly in the room "Gather what men you still can and have them make some bombs with the Dust" she said while heading for the exit, as if her business there was done.

"No"

Suddenly all silence was lost in the room. Neo readied herself, she only had one shot at this.

Cinder turned slowly, and Emerald had wide eyes seeing the two fires coming out of Cinder's eyes, which was weird because Neo could swear it used to be only one that did that.

"I'm sorry Roman it would seem I misheard you" she said slowly while the intensity of her eyes increased "but did you say 'no'?"

"Yes" and before any of them could say anything else Roman raised his cane and shot at the sidekick.

Emerald's eyes widened and Cinder turned to look at her most loyal companion, and that's when she acted.

The sound of glass breaking was heard, and Neo prepared her umbrella.

Aura was the physical representation of one's souls. The saying of the eyes being the key or door to one's soul wasn't too inaccurate either.

They were also a quick way to the brain from the right angle.

Moving with all the speed she could muster, she positioned herself correctly and aimed the pointy end of her weapon at the Bitch's right eye.

In what would be her last moments, Cinder locked eyes with Neo, and Neo could see the surprise in them, the fear, and the _recognition_ of who would kill her.

And before she could lift her arm to summon any fireball or anything…

…Neo's umbrella was sticking out of her head, with some grey matter still clinging onto it.

All that happened in quite possibly in half a second. And the other half was the explosion from Roman's shot, which sent Emerald flying out of the room.

"Uff" she turned to see Roman collapse on the sofa in the room "Holy shit…we did it" he murmured as if he couldn't believe it "We actually did it!"

Neo wanted to nod excitedly, but suddenly she felt a rush enter her body. She collapsed on the floor, trying to stabilize herself with her umbrella.

"Neo!" Roman was quick to be on his partner's side "Are you ok?!"

Her body felt on fire with the surplus of energy, power entering her body, but she didn't know that, all she knew was that it felt strange.

She got back on her feet and looked at her body, Roman stood by too wondering what happened to her.

She looked at her hand and clenched it into a fist. She felt good, better even, as if she had gotten a Power Up!

She turned to see at Roman with a twinkle in her eyes, when she noticed something behind him.

Moving fast, she shoved Roman out of her way and raised her hand towards Emerald who cried an enraged battle cry as she tried to cut them with her scythes.

She didn't know how or why she raised her hand, but it felt like an instinct and out of it a fireball was shot from her hands.

Once again Emerald was shot out of the room, Neo turned her head to Roman and made a jerking motion towards where the red-eyed girl had exited through.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll deal with this loose end" he called as he was exiting with all the calm in the world.

Neo just dropped on the sofa where her partner had just been. She closed her eyes trying to let the adrenaline die down, when suddenly she smelled something awful.

'Riiight, the bitch's body is still in there' she sniffed the air again 'Aaand it seemed that she emptied her bowels, just great.'

She got up and exited the room in the abandoned warehouse.

She saw Roman at the base not looking pleased, she tapped his shoulder asking for what happened.

"The little girl managed to escape, she remembered she had an illusion Semblance"

Neo didn't much care if the girl escaped, after all where would she go? And if she tried to take "revenge" she knew she was more than capable of handling her herself.

"By the way, Neo" she perked up hearing her name "What the fuck was that up there? Why didn't you tell me you had a power like that?"

She quickly crossed her arms in an X form and shook her head vehemently, quickly conveying her message. She did not know what happened.

"Neo your eyes…" he said and brought a hand closer to her face, she blinked and looked up at him "They were similar to Cinder's, do you think…" he stopped and lowered his voice "…do you think you got her power because you killed her?"

Neo honestly didn't know, but what other explanation was there. She just shrugged her shoulders.

"Whatever, it's not even been 2 weeks since everyone died, and we get thrown into some shit" he complained "whatever, let's take it easy for this month and in the meantime…" he gestured at her "we'll figure out how to use your new powers"

As he was about to go back up to the office, she grabbed his arm and closed her nostril with her hand while shaking her head.

"What? Oh yeah! Cinder's dead body is up there" he smacked his head as he remembered that little detail, he did a 180° and headed for the exit "I never did like this place anyway, too rundown for my tastes"

And as they headed outside, Neo was sure that their criminal future was save, and with her newfound power, she would make sure of it.

* * *

**Cut. I rewrote this chapter three times, each time it started differently but the end was always the same. I had a long time to debate what I wanted the chapter to be about. College doesn't help at all but neither does videogames. I just can't not play them.**

**Anyway, I hoped you liked the chapter.**

**-The Knoght in Dark Flames.**


	8. Year I: Ghira

Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY nor Marvel.

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Chapter 8: Ghira Belladonna

For many years, Ghira Belladonna always fought hard for the rights of Faunus and the White Fang. He fought, but not like the White Fang from the present, but with his words and actions.

He led many protests across the kingdoms in Remnant, and he saw how many of these ended in catastrophe, be it either by some authority that tried to diminish their efforts, or some radicals inside the White Fang who instigated a conflict.

But that never stopped him, for there was nothing more important than the betterment of Faunuskind.

Yet, that changed the day he met Kali, and they had Blake. He learned he would do anything for his family, to greater lengths than he ever did with the White Fang.

Yes, there was nothing more important to him than his family.

He was devastated the day Blake chose the changing White Fang instead of them, but he never stopped loving her. Even when she never answered his calls, he never stopped worrying. He never blamed her.

He blamed Adam; he corrupted his daughter's mind with ideas that a more direct charge would help the world treat the Faunus better. He knew better, all they would do was distance the White Fang from the other Kingdoms and doing so would also distance Menagerie.

That was five years ago, it had been 5 years since he'd seen his little daughter. He often wondered if she ate well, if she was still with the Fang. When would they see her again?

He knew that even though Kali tried to distract herself by doing stuff around the manor, she always worried about Blake. He too tried to distract his mind with his Chieftain duties.

It had been a normal day, he was finishing from reading some requests from a civilian to buy some land from the outskirts of the coast to set a small port for fishing.

He thought it was a good idea, and as he was about to approve it with his stamp, he heard a weapon clatter on the floor. He turned to where his guard was but found no one. He turned to where his other guard was and only saw fear and shock on her eyes.

"Sindra, what happened?" he asked getting the attention of the frozen guard.

"S-Sir, I-I don't know" he could see tears form in her eyes as she tried to speak "he-he was t-there and t-then…" her rambling was stopped by a scream that was heard outside, soon followed by many others.

Quickly standing up, Ghira rushes to the balcony in the room to witness what's causing all the chaos. As soon as he reaches the edge of the balcony, he is stunned by the events happening.

People suddenly turning into ash, or dust, he wasn't to sure and he wouldn't waste any moment trying to figure it out.

He goes back inside and see the guard crying on the floor, he grabs her by the shoulders and pulls her up "Pull yourself together, we need to gather everyone in the manor, make a headcount" the guard stares blankly at him, before quickly nodding and wiping her tears away.

"Ghira!" his office's doors are slammed open as his wife, Kali, strides into the room, worry written all over her face. Her features soften as she sees him with the guard "Oh thank the brothers! I was so worried about you" she quickly speeds to hi and hugs him as tight as she can.

"Kali, I was worried about you too, but we can't waste any time, we have to stablish order on the island and figure out what's going on" he said to his wife as he pulled her out of the hug.

Kali quickly nodded "I've gathered all the house servants in the main entrance, and I've had the guards form a perimeter around the house" however as she says this a grimace forms on her face that worries Ghira.

"What? What happened?" he asks worriedly.

"Ghira, at least half of the servants are missing and the a fourth of the guards too" she slowly replies "whatever is happening is…" she stops as if she had a lump on her throat "…killing groups, maybe, but I don't know if it's a criteria it follows"

Ghira stares wide eyed at his wife, and as he does, he notices something, that a moment ago wasn't there.

Absolute silence.

"Let's go outside" he informs everyone.

As he passes by the rest of the household, he can see the defeated looks in many of the maids, and guards. Some were even crying, and he can't fault them, after all they could've lost a friend during these hard events.

As he exited the manor, he could see as far as the eye could, many of the residents laying in the ground crying. He could see in those that were closer to him, holding something akin to dirt or ash.

And standing at the steps of the manor were many faunus, some looked angry, others distraught, but the majority looked lost. Looking at their leader for answers.

He stepped forward and he cleared his throat. All faunus even the ones that were crying and mourning their close ones, stopped to look at him.

This was the first time Ghira could remember of ever feeling nervous in front of his people.

"We've been hit with a catastrophe" he started trying to find the right words to say to obviously upset townsfolk "We've been hit with a catastrophe that seems to have turned many of our brethren into little more than piles of dust, and as I witnessed myself, we don't know if these events were a coordinated attack or if it even targeted a specific group, we need to stand-"

"This was obviously an attack by Atlas" a voice shouted among the crowd, everyone parted way and showed the tallest brother of the Albains, Corsac "this is obviously a ploy to reduce the numbers of all faunus, don't you see they want to enslave us again, and by reducing our numbers they have a better chance of doing so!" his ramblings brought forth fear in many among the crowd.

"You cannot be sure of such accusations young Albain" Ghira tried to reclaim order among the population "for what we know this could be happening all across Remnant, and could also be happening to the humans"

"Why would they cripple themselves like this?" Corsac rebutted "Don't you see, any moment we'll get news of faunus suddenly disappearing, they'll make us an endangered species, and when that happens, they will pounce at us like a Beowolf to a baby, we need to-"

"We won't do a thing you say" Ghira calmly interrupts him "We'll wait for news to come from the mainland" he informs, but can see that those actions doesn't calm that many people and could see many drop their heads "but…" all looked up at him "…if what you say proves to be true, if only Faunuskind is targeted by this, I, myself, will organize for the formal mobilization of the Island, with whoever volunteers" he raised his voice and once again he carried the authority he had as High Leader.

Many looked more determined than ever, and even Corsac was wide eyed, for in that moment he saw the same fire he once had seen in the Leader of the White Fang.

"For now, we should identify and mourn those we've lost, we will hold a massive ceremony to give those we lost today proper respects and goodbye" he finally finishes, and steps down to help coordinate said ceremony.

Said ceremony was carried out flawlessly, and while the island felt better by giving a proper funeral for their fallen, they still had to mourn.

As the days passed, and as the townsfolk tried to get back to their usual lives, Ghira was worried. For Blake never called or sent letters.

He refused to believe she hated them so much she wouldn't even contact them under these circumstances, for even if they had a falling out, he never thought it would be this serious.

He didn't want to think of the worst, and simply told himself and Kali that she too was possibly mourning whoever she could've lost. But deep down they feared the worst.

As days turned weeks, weeks into a month, a ship could be seen in the distance and along with it, news from the outside world.

The people of Menagerie ignored the boat as it approached, many feeling depressed and ignoring it, only a few flocked to the boat hoping to hear of the news it carried.

Even though Ghira stayed at the manor, he too hoped to hear the news the ship brought, and so he patiently waited for his messenger to come back from the port.

When the messenger came back, he was incredibly shocked and slightly relieved to know that the disappearance it didn't only happen to Faunus, Humans alike too turned into dust. Yet he was stunned to learn that there wasn't a pattern anywhere.

Everyone died equally, be them male or female, young or old. So many died and after a headcount, it was found that half of Remnant had turned. Ghira had thought that only happened on Menagerie. They too had carried out a headcount and half the inhabitants had "disappeared".

Once he finished reading the inform given by each kingdom, he doubtfully swiped to what the messenger had told him they called The List. An ominous name, which he had an idea of what it contained. Slowly he read it.

He wishes he hadn't. He utterly laments reading The List.

From what he read from the news on his scroll (courtesy from the Captain of the ship), The List is a compilation of all cases that were either reported missing or seen happening by close ones.

Ghira didn't want to look, but he had to be sure.

Blake Belladonna.

Right under the section of those seen turning into dust. Kali was next to him, she collapsed on the floor once he passed her the Scroll.

She was crying loudly, tears rolling down her face as she put her head on his chest to try and ease the pain. But they both knew that was in vain, nothing could ease the pain of losing your only daughter.

They wanted to know if it said anything else, where she had been, who had seen her… 'go'? However, they didn't find anything. It didn't say who reported for privacy purposes for the people who wanted to mourn.

He…He understood. He wouldn't want to be disturbed either as he mourned his lost daughter.

They sat there in their room for hours, until finally Kali fell asleep, if Ghira had to guess, he would think she was mentally exhausted, he sure was.

His daughter. His little Blake.

Gone. Just like that. As if by the snap of the fingers.

He put his wife inside the covers, and soon joined her. He would like to believe this was all just a terrible nightmare, even if deep down he knew it wasn't.

Just before going to sleep he gave a small prayer to the Brothers, so that they take care of her wherever she is.

Months passed, Ghira didn't care to count them anymore, and the manor had never been as quiet. The townsfolk had learned of the fate of the Chieftain's daughter. The news quelled some who were starting to resent them thinking that it seemed suspicious that the chief's family had come unscathed, alas that was never the case.

There used to be many guards around the manor, but now there wasn't any, and only 4 remained inside. The staff were the same, only 3 remained to help around the house.

Ghira was in his office, reading about some report about the booming market. He was pained to say it, but ever since that fateful day, many prepared for the eventual dystopia that would come from such events; however, everything was the contrary.

Fishers that remained commented that the amount of fish in the sea was the same, and as such were able to continue to provide to the island without any problem. Even the few homeless that existed on Menagerie now had a house to live in.

Some of the negatives were the orphans that came in the wake of the event. The small orphanage that existed on the island received more funds than ever, an order issued by Ghira himself, making them able to hold all children left parentless.

Ghira was brought out of his memories the past few months by the door opening and in coming Kali, walking fast.

"GhirayouwontbelieveitAdamishere" Kali said very fast and with more energy than she had shown this last months. Ghira was surprised by her different attitude.

"I'm sorry dear, could you pass that by me once more? Maybe slowly" he asked gently to his wife.

"Oh Sorry dear" she giggled a little "I said, you won't believe it, Adam is here"

Ghira suddenly stopped "Adam?" he asked, to which Kali only nodded. Suddenly Ghira frowned "And what good does him being here brings to us?" he growls lightly.

"I know you don't like him" she started while putting her hands on his arm in a calming manner "but he is our only clue to what happened to Blake" she lowered her head and whispered "or at least give us some closure to what happened to her after she left"

His wife was the one that used to fill the manor with lovely aura that no matter who entered could feel at home, however since learning that Blake hadn't survive the phenomenon, that aura had turned into something somber, and you could no longer feel that liveliness. Even if Ghira knew she would never return to her old self, he knew that learning of what happened to Blake would be good for Kali.

"Ok, where did you see him?" no matter how much he disliked Adam, knowing what happened to Blake was more important than his little grudge.

Kali perked up hearing her husband's question "He was at the market, and I think I saw him go into the jungle" she recounted how she saw him "But why would he go to the jungle?"

Ghira knew why "He has a little shack there" he informed Kali "where do you think Blake went when she wanted time away from us"

"How do you know that, dear? Afraid he would corrupt our daughter?" she asked with a teasing smile and tone, however Ghira just ignored her teasing.

"As a matter of fact? Yes, I had a guard follow them" he received a nudge at his ribs "ok, I followed them"

"Well let's go say hi to him" she grabbed his arm and started to drag him through the room.

After exiting the front door Ghira took charge and led them through the center of the town, until they reached a path that had vegetation overgrown. They followed the path to small clearing where a shack was. It was a normal shack, with some crude bases, but with a very stable and somewhat modern look. It even looked bigger than Ghira remembered and there were less trees around it.

As they approach the door, they could hear some noises coming from the inside, it sounded like someone was running around pushing furniture around, and…laughs? Ghira shook his head, who would Adam bring there.

He knocked hard on the door and the sound that was beyond it stopped abruptly.

They heard steps coming towards the door.

Blue eye locks with amber eyes.

"Ghira" Adam greets, standing on the door while blocking as much of the inside with his body, he turns to look at Kali "Kali"

Adam stood a little taller than he remembered, now reaching Ghira's shoulder. He was wearing an eyepatch on his left eye.

"Adam" Ghira greets back as cold as possible.

"To what do I owe the pleasure?" Ghira could hear the sarcasm when he said pleasure.

"I heard from a reliable source…" he motioned to Kali who gave a small wave at the bull faunus "…that you were back on Menagerie, and we had some questions for you"

"I see" he slowly says "what…is it you want to ask?" he asks skeptically.

Ghira raises an eyebrow at how cooperative Adam's being "Won't you let us in?"

Adam's body tenses before relaxing and closing the door behind him "I'd rather not"

Ghira frowns at the show of disrespect, but ignores it labeling it as normal Adam behavior "Ok" he says taking a deep breath "I'll get straight to the point, what happened to Blake?" he growls menacingly, signifying that he is willing to get his hands dirty.

However, he is surprised to see Adam react at the name in realization, as if remembering something he forgot a long time.

"I haven't heard from her in almost a year" Adam answers truthfully.

"What?" this time it's Kali who expresses her thoughts "what do you mean you haven't heard from her on a year?" Kali asks distraught.

"Is just as it sounds, she betrayed the White Fang almost a year ago" Adam growls remembering the events on the train "She left the Fang during a mission"

Ghira let out a breath he didn't know he was holding, he felt better knowing his daughter at least caught on to the growing violent tendencies of the Fang.

"Where did she go?! Didn't you used to run the Vale Cell?!" Kali whoever was desperate and wanted to know where exactly her daughter had died. Surrounded by friends? Or all alone? The list said she had been seen die.

"I don't know! I tried looking for her too, supposedly-" Adam stops talking as he remembered something "Roman saw her" he murmurs.

"What?" Ghira couldn't hear what he said, whoever Kali, with her cat ears, did.

"Roman saw her on the docks" he says much louder this time "in his last report he said his operation was disrupted by huntsmen in training; one was a female cat faunus with amber eyes" Ghira sees Adam clench his fist "Dammit I should've known!"

"Did you hear Ghira?" he looks at his wife who had a smile on her face "She was a Huntress in training, that means she joined Beacon, you know what that means? She had a team with her, our daughter didn't die alone" Kali's eyes start to tear up and he smiles at her.

"What?" they both turned to look at Adam "What do you mean 'died'?" his voice expressed anger, and if that wasn't enough his hair was staring to glow.

"We thought you knew" Kali's voice stabbed Adam like a hot knife "she was one that turned to dust" she told him with a sad smile.

"I-I" Adam was at a loss of words, he was so shocked he didn't noticed the door opening behind him.

"Big brother?" Adam's hair glowed receded fast, and slowly turned to look at his leg where a dog faunus little girl was holding him, and behind her was a human boy looking at them "Are you okay? Come back to play" the little girl asked his 'Big brother'.

Both Kali and Ghira were shocked by turn of events and stood there staring at the kids dumbfounded. Feeling the stares from the adults on her, the girl turns to look at them.

"Big brother, who are they?" she asked innocently.

"No one important Crystal, besides they were just leaving" he says, while giving them one final glare "let's go back inside" the child smiles and goes back inside.

Seeing they weren't welcome anymore, Ghira and Kali started to walk away, and as they start to enter the jungle once again Ghira turns to look back at the shack, still dumbfounded by what he saw.

"-r? Dear? Ghira!" he turns to look at Kali, who had a small smile.

"Yes dear?"

"Isn't it refreshing?" she asks him.

"What is?" Kali lets her tears flow, Ghira grows worried for her and was about to comfort her, but see she still has her smile.

"Our daughter wasn't alone, she made friends, she fought for justice her friends fought alongside her!" Kali continued to ramble with a tear-filled face, and a huge smile "I wish I could've told her I loved her one more time"

Ghira puts his arm around her and pulls her close.

They continue to walk down the path to the town.

"Me too" He says as a small tear rolls down his cheek.

Ghira Belladonna is a man of family and would do anything for said family.

But more than anything.

He would always love his family, no matter what.

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**Finished! I honestly was never one to write heartfelt moments, so if it felt wither cliché or maybe…stiff? I don't know, just saying it's not my forte.**

**Take care of your hygiene. **

**Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it.**

**-The Knight in Dark Flames**


	9. Year I: Grimm

I don't own RWBY nor Marvel.

_(AN: this chapter refers to almost everyone as it, they're not people afterall, so do try to keep up of who is referring to)_

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Chapter 9: Beowolf

It didn't know what happened. It didn't know how it started.

It didn't know what led It here. But with its more developed conscious it could remember.

A normal day with their pack, just strolling through some woods with the alpha at the head.

And they felt it. A humongous sensation to go to where the forest ended. It was the same feeling they felt when they attacked packs of humans.

Their Alpha howled and started to run in the direction of where they felt the negativity coming from. It must be a huge pack to cause a spike of negativity like that. Whenever they attacked other small packs of humans, they it never felt this overwhelming.

But as they were galloping through the woods a burning sensation hit their heads and collapsed to they all collapsed to the floor whining. It burned badly, however it only lasted for some moments.

The Beowolf couldn't possibly know the word to describe what it instinctually felt. It was a power vacuum. Whoever used to hold the absolute power of the Grimm had died, which meant that all Alphas, young and old, had a chance of taking over.

The Alpha of their pack suddenly turned around and started running in the opposite direction to where they were going.

All Beowolves went after it. They all came upon another pack, both Alphas were staring down each down while standing on their hinds.

The other Alpha was shorter than ours, but it sported more scars across its fur and bone plating, signifying at his survival skills. It growled and the message was clear to all of them.

'Submit or be killed'.

Our Alpha got back on four and prepared to pounce, but not before barking at the pack.

'Attack'.

The command entered the young beowolf's mind and he rushed at the closest Grimm to it.

The Beowolf he attacked seemed to be weaker than it, and it was able to bite onto it's neck easily, before crunching it.

Suddenly it was shoved aside by two others, one biting onto its arm, and the other grabbing one of its back spikes.

It fell skidded along the grass making a small trail of dirt. Quickly rolling to the side it avoided two wide slashes to where he stopped.

Grabbing one of the arms of its attackers, the Beowolf bit at the arm ripping it off. However, doing this left its side open for an attack which the other beowolf did throw.

It howled in pain as it felt claws slash its rib side, and while in pain it swung wildly at its opponent and luckily slashing at its eye.

Taking advantage of the howling beowolf it attacked its neck just like it had done against its first opponent.

Dropping the vanishing body of its kin, the Beowolf turned to look across the battle. While their pack was bigger and stronger than the other one, it wasn't the case for the other Alpha who slashed and bit at their Alpha faster than said alpha could react.

Their Alpha dropped exhausted to the ground and as the smaller one was about to finish it off, a loud noise was heard, and its head was gone in an instant.

Quickly identifying said noise as the ones the humans Predators use, the Beowolf waited for the command from its Alpha, however another noise was heard and now its alpha had a hole in its neck.

The Beowolf growled and prepared to attack or flee, and- it stopped momentarily.

And cocked its head confused. It had never had the thought of fleeing, when they saw a human they always attacked without retreat, so what changed?

More gunshots brought it out of its musings, and seeing its brethren killed it decided to flee for its first time as a Grimm.

It ran and ran. It didn't know how long or how far it ran, but once it stopped the Beowolf collapsed exhausted and closed its eyes.

Once it woke up its body felt different, looking down at its paws and torso, it saw it now had the bone plating of an Alpha.

The now Alpha Beowolf ignored its changes and went on its way alone.

It ran for days, and weeks. Other beowolves that saw it past running, if they had no alpha would join it. It had even incorporated another pack once.

Also fights between packs of another Grimm, or bigger Grimms were a common occurrence. The number of alphas vastly decreased and as such the size of packs increased by a huge margin.

Each moon cycle, the number of alphas decreased, until finally something stopped the Grimm completely. A familiar instinct was felt through the Grimm, the Alpha Beowolf included.

It called for them.

It was summoning them.

However, many Grimm decided to ignore this feeling, for it wasn't a very strong impulse. Whatever it was, it had stopped the constant infighting among Grimm, but the mystery of what it had been remained?

Every day, the summon felt a little harder.

Now after 12 moon cycles, the Beowolf was looking at the stars. It now had many more scars, and even some broken plating, and stood bigger than all the alphas a year ago, also with a thicker fur.

It was staring at the stars for one simple reason. The feeling was back.

And stronger than ever.

The feeling was keeping it awake, as if subconsciously controlling it. The Beowolf stayed sitting until something raced across the sky.

Rapidly standing the Alpha howled at the sky. And started running in a single direction.

After taking off into the distance, silence seemed to fall upon the spot it once occupied.

Yet, as the seconds passed, a rumble was starting to form in the distance, and soon Grimm were running in the same direction as the Alpha Beowolf.

All Grimm were going in the same direction.

Of all kinds.

From all paces.

When scientists tried to understand what had caused the massive Grimm migration, they would only be able to agree on one thing.

It all started after one simple event, that they believed somewhat insignificant.

A purple meteorite had hit Remnant.

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**I legit wrote this before an exam. What the hell is wrong with me?! It doesn't matter. I know what I want for chapter 10, however I didn't know what I wanted for Ch. 9, so I thought of this little type of interlude.**

**I mean if you know who's next pls don't spoil in the reviews…but honestly you all surely do know who I'm writing next... I hope.**

**Anyway, hoped you enjoyed it.**

**-The Knight in Dark Flames**


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